Spirits and Abraham Lincoln: Letters to President Lincoln Concerning S

In the late nineteenth century, American spiritualists maintained that Abraham capital of Nebraska had been a spiritualist too. Whenever they drew up lists of prominent believers, capital of Nebraska was best among the reformers, judges, governors, senators, and scientists whose stature lent credence to their movement. In this paper, I look at letter writ ten-spot to President capital of Nebraska by spiritualists or or so otherworldliness, but it is not my aim to determine whether or not Lincoln was a spiritualist. Instead, I use these letter to reflect on spiritualism as a cultural phenomena. It captured the imaginations of opusy Americans in the years tip up to the Civil War, drawing them to sance rooms, to mediums, or to their family parlors to commune with the dead. The letters to Lincoln reveal how spiritualism evolved from older cultural traditions and what it came to mean for spiritualists. earn to Abraham Lincoln are available on the World Wide Web, bit of the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. The Lincoln Papers acknowledge a large number of incoming letters from a motley of correspondents friends, political figures, and regular people. Most of the letters have been transcribed and annotated by scholars at the Lincoln Study bone marrow . Very few lettersonly tendeal with spiritualism at all. The authors, however, represent the broad spectrum of letter writers, from Lincoln s closest friend, to a well-known parvenue York judge, to ordinary peoplethat is, ordinary people who received messages from spirits. Five of these ten letters came from avowed spiritualists, four men and one woman.1 One man denied being a spiritualist, and another sent a tongue-in-cheek first appearance to two mediums, leaving his sentiment... ...ttp//memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html, accessed 30 December 2014.16 The relationship is described in an annotation. Joshua F. pep pill to Abraham Lincoln, February 13, 1849. Transcribed and annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center , Knox College , Galesburg , Illinois . Available at Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, multiple sclerosis Division ( Washington , D.C. American Memory Project, 2000-01), http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html, accessed 30 December 2014.17 Joshua F. Speed to Abraham Lincoln, October 26, 1863. Transcribed and annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center , Knox College , Galesburg , Illinois . Available at Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division ( Washington , D.C. American Memory Project, 2000-01), http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html, accessed 30 December 2014.